And this was supposed to be the easy game. The Clippers, now winners of four straight, limped to the finish line against the underrated New Orleans Hornets, who made things interesting at the end with a flurry of difficult 3-pointers. As has been the case in most of the Clippers’ crunch time wins, Chris Paul bailed them out, with a free-throw line jumper with 52 seconds left to give the Clippers a decisive 88-85 lead. Eric Bledsoe, he of 19 (!) minutes tonight, followed Paul’s jumper with a tip-in dunk that sealed the game.

With the win, the Clippers remain in the hunt for the four-seed and possibly even the the three-seed. As such, tomorrow is what we’ve all been waiting for: Clippers-Grizzlies, for all the marbles (and home-court, presumably). Onto Last Call:

Eric Bledsoe Per 36 Stat O’ The Night

ClipperBlog Live’s Best Moment

Andrew and Fred bring up a sore spot — in light of tomorrow’s matchup with Memphis — as they claim Reggie Evans would be the one bench player who could solve the Clippers’ defensive rebounding woes. Also, with his button-up shirt and long hair, Andrew looks like a boy band member from the late-90s, so there’s that.

Check Your Messages

Paul-Bledsoe Backcourt
Chris Paul checked in for Lamar Odom with 8:49 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Clippers finished the game with Chris Paul, Eric Bledsoe, Jamal Crawford, Matt Barnes and Blake Griffin. Here is the stat line for the final 8:49 of this game:

Get Ready
Friday was ugly, but at least it paved the way for Saturday’s excitement. The game against the Grizzlies might be the biggest regular season game in Clippers history. Think about that for a second: the biggest game in Clippers history. Sure, there was the closer against the Knicks last season that had the Clips in a similar position, fighting for home court advantage in an upcoming first-round series against Memphis, but this is different. It’s head-to-head. It’s a confrontation with the Clippers’ first real on-court, basketball rival. If you’re a basketball nerd like me, tomorrow night is the Saturday night you wait to go out. You stay in, watch what will probably be the ugliest game of the night, and appreciate that the Clippers actually have late-season, big-game rivals to compete against.- Fred Katz

Winning Time
Whenever the Clippers are in the midst of a close game in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, Chris Paul will turn to his teammates and say, “It’s winning time.” That usually means Paul is getting ready to take over the game. It seemed unlikely that Paul would be able to do that Friday as he sat on the bench in the fourth quarter, his right knee wrapped after scoring only seven points. That all changed when Paul checked back into the game. He scored 10 points in less than nine minutes in the fourth quarter and finished with 17 points, 14 assists and two steals. He scored the Clippers’ last six points from the free throw line and his step-back jump shot with less than a minute left gave the Clippers a 88-85 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.- Arash Markazi at ESPN LA

Who Are You?
As Fred said, tonight’s game was ugly, but tomorrow’s shall be the ugliest. The Grizzlies are the kings of “grit-n-grind”, and we shall expect a slowed-down slugfest. Memphis is going to try to suffocate the Clippers on defense, pound them inside on offense, and out-smart them overall. This game has more than just seeding implications: it’s a first round preview, most likely. This game will set the tone for when these two (presumably) meet up in a week.

From here on out, the Clippers control their destiny. Win out and you get the four-seed and home-court over the Grizzlies, at the least. Lose any game, and you’re stuck in the five-spot, with the daunting task of having to face the Nuggets or Grizzlies on the road. (And my favorite scenario: win out, and have the Nuggets lose just one game, and get the three-seed. It’s a long shot — the Nuggets’ remaining games are easy: vs. Portland, at Milwaukee and vs. Phoenix — but still possible.)

In the past couple months, the Clippers have lost their identity. We’re not really sure who this team is. Contender? Pretender? Somewhere in the middle? What’s their ceiling? This, more than anything, will show us who these Clippers really are.- Jovan Buha

Jovan Buha is a staff writer and Digital Content Programmer at FOX Sports. He also contributes to ESPN Los Angeles’ Clippers and Lakers coverage. Jovan graduated from USC with a degree in Print & Digital Journalism and a minor in Sports Media Studies in 2014.

I just hope that whoever the Clippers bring in ad coach next season will at least contemplate starting Bledsoe at the two-guard slot. He was fantastic defending Gordon late in the 4th and made some nice cuts/drives on offense. I really don’t see why he couldn’t play the 2. He knows how to (from his college days); it’s just a matter of if he can defend the best 2 guards. I think he showed today he can and he should be given that chance.

Clips4

It’s also a matter of Bledsoe working on his mid-range game too. He needs to be able to hit his jump shots to spread the floor. Otherwise, defenses will sag off of him

Renato S.

As the way the game plan is set, they need a 2-guard that can shoot 3s and spread the floor and open up space for Griffin and CP3 and Bledsoe doesn’t have these skills, I think that’s why VDN uses Billups and Green, because they can do that – Willie wasn’t really hitting shots when the season started, but lately, he has been playing pretty well.

The rebounding thing concerns me, Griffin is not rebounding as he should, I wonder why. In his first year he was one of the best offensive rebounders, lately there have been plenty of 5 or 6 rebounds games, why this inconsistency? I know his has dishing way more often lately but that doesn’t really justifies. KG was a pretty solid 20-10-5 and so should Griffin.

I gave VDN a chance, but no, the Clippers won’t go very far with him. It was going well in the beginning, until teams started to figure them out and again, VDN wasn’t able to do something that he always struggled to do, fine tuning, or even worse, counter-adjustments.

Griffin has become a very good screener and not so much people has given him the credit for that, but using him just as a screener and feeding him in the low-block is – AGAIN! – pretty predictable! When things become predictable, it becomes harder on players, which on one hand is good for development, but on the other hand, doing that unnecessarily is just a waste.

Nate McMillan and Van Gundy Bros. are still out there, VDN won’t get them there, I doubt CP3 can’t see that, I bet his contract extension will depend on that.

libertarian

Bledsoe: over 40% from three over his last 100 plus attempts (going back to the end of last season). He might prove himself to be a good floor-spacer if a certain someone was smart enough to let him play occasionally.

Renato S.

He got better, actually he got better overall from last season to this one and people are not talking about this. He is shooting better, his FT% which, if I remember well, was pretty bad last season, in the beginning of the season he was better at controlling the tempo and his PER was TOP15 and occasionally TOP10, he was the second best PG PER for a while. I think he will get there, but he is still not a floor-spacer, once he gets known for being a 3-pt shooter, that’s when you really proves it.

But I agree, nonetheless, CP3+Bledsoe combo should be used more often, it was quite successful in the end of last season. I was making a case that he still not a starter and more experiments and playing time should be done before that, but I do think that Bledsoe should play more with CP3. Being a starter is not about if he is better than the other 2-guard of it him and CP3 mix so well together, it’s about starting unit chemistry balanced with the energy off the bench so it’s not so simple.

just win

good 2 see Bledsoe slowly coming back 2 being himself man nothing from Caron and he is a starter does not rebound at all does not play good defense does not move like Matt 2 get open make it easier 4 Clippers 2 score Caron has been in the league for years and still does not do fundamental things very selfish ball player clippers need a starting .3 & 2 I like Willie Green but he is a bench player that is starting It looks like Blake is still hurting hope he gets better before playoffs looks like he is playing with a calf tear CP3 is a great player for his size and ability but he can be stopped offensively and defensively because of his small stature I luv his attitude and strong belief in his abilities but he does not have the super speed or jumping ability 2 not be stopped

just win

good 2 see Bledsoe slowly coming back 2 being himself man nothing from Caron and he is a starter does not rebound at all does not play good defense does not move like Matt 2 get open make it easier 4 Clippers 2 score Caron has been in the league for years and still does not do fundamental things very selfish ball player clippers need a starting .3 & 2 I like Willie Green but he is a bench player that is starting It looks like Blake is still hurting hope he gets better before playoffs looks like he is playing with a calf tear CP3 is a great player for his size and ability but he can be stopped offensively and defensively because of his small stature I luv his attitude and strong belief in his abilities but he does not have the super speed or jumping ability 2 not be stopped